TouchPal keyboard brings gesture-based typing to Windows 8

TouchPal offers on-screen keyboard apps for Android, iOS, and other mobile platforms. Now the company’s virtual keyboard is available for Windows 8 tablets as well.

TouchPal for Windows 8 isn’t yet available from the Windows Store, but you can download the app from the TouchPal website. Right now the installer seems to be in Chinese, but if you click your way through the installation process you can choose English as your default language.

The TouchPal keyboard has a couple of features you don’t get with the standard Windows 8 keyboard including the ability to switch between standard mode and split-screen mode simply by dragging the sides of the keyboard apart so that you can type with your thumbs on a 10 inch or larger tablet.

But the biggest difference is that TouchPal supports gesture-based typing, much like Swype or the default Android 4.2 keyboard. TouchPal calls this feature “Curve.”

Curve lets you enter text by sliding a finger from one letter to the next without lifting your finger off the keyboard.

Thanks to text prediction software, the app does a pretty good job of figuring out what word you were trying to type, even as your finger glides over keys that aren’t part of the word you’re looking for.

Before I upgraded my phone to Android 4.2, I spent a year or so using TouchPal for Android, and I was pretty happy with the experience.

Some folks who have tried the Windows 8 app say that it’s still a bit buggy at the moment, but it’s also available as a free download — so you can always give it a try and uninstall the app if you don’t like it.

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I don’t know what you’re talking about. On my Dell XPS 10 I can split my keyboard in two.

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Can you do it “by dragging the sides of the keyboard apart.” That’s what Brad was talking about.

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Works for ativ 500.
However would be much better if it auto popped up on text boxes like swype for win7 used to be able to do.

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Does it work with the Modern UI? For Windows 8, only the Modern UI auto pops the keyboard… So for the desktop you have to do it manually… Hopefully MS will fix that with the Code Blue update…

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do you mind sharing process… specially after installation process, how to choose keyboard to be specific? Mine does not show up on acer w 510…

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